I think that I've gotten pretty good at navigating my way around this blog website in Hebrew, because I can't figure out how to get it in English regularly, so I'm sorry if there are lots of typos. Or as they say in Ivrit, "Slichah."
Last week Saturday my friend Lianne had a Halloween party at her boyfriend's restaurant out in Ramla, which is about 20 minutes outside the city of Tel Aviv. The restaurant was built by Crusaders, so needless to say, we archaeology students were pretty geeked about that. :) Since Israel doesn't really observe Halloween, we made our own costumes out of the things we had around really, so they weren't really that spectacular.
On Sunday was the first day of school. Honestly, it feels good to be back in the classroom. I did enjoy my extended summer vacation, but I think that being a student forms such a fundamental part of my identity, and now it feels like I'm back where I belong once again. I also feel as though this whole experience has really reinforced that I really do want to pursue a career in academia. It's also such an honor to be able to study with some of the best and most prominent scholars and teachers in archaeology and biblical history that many students wait several years to study with, and I get to all in just one year. Okay, nerd rant over. Sunday we had a class on the Middle Bronze Age archaeology of Canaan. The way that this MA program is structured is that each class meets for just two weeks, but they meet pretty much all day long, so the past few days have been pretty exhausting. We also have instructed reading for like three hours every week. This week we used that time to prepare presentations on certain geographical areas of Israel. Basically, I'm now an expert on the Jordan Valley. :) This semester we are also doing a seminar with one of the PhD students using Jerusalem as a case study, which I absolutely love so far, even though we've only had one 4-hour meeting so far. I think the reason I love it so much is that it's more biblical history than the science archaeology, and I love biblical history.
We've also had a ton of reading to prepare for all of our classes. I guess this is what being a grad student is like. Unlike in undergrad, I have to actually read everything really closely and take notes on it as well. Our teachers are really trying to get us to be critical of the papers we read and find flaws and where they are lacking, which is something that wasn't really emphasized in undergrad. It's difficult but it really forces you to develop your own opinion and use your own knowledge and logic to determine the validity of the argument of the author. We're also supposed to be examining the bibliography of the readings we do to further determine the soundness of the subject material by looking at their sources.
Anyway, on Sunday I start my Hebrew class, and I can't wait. I loved Hebrew class in college, so hopefully I will really like it here too. It meets for like 5 hours every Sunday, oi vey. Here are a few pictures of campus:
Every other Friday (which is like Saturday for you all), we have tours. Last time we had a walking practical tour of Tel Aviv, and today we had another tour of Tel Aviv, which focused on the architecture of Tel Aviv. Unfortunately our tour was cut short because it started RAINING. I know, right? We talked a bit about the European and Oriental influences on the architecture in Tel Aviv and the perfectionistic style using simple geometric shapes, which still render the buildings functional. It was kind of intense, I felt like I was back in some of my art history classes at Michigan. Anyway, here are some pictures, and see for yourself if you can analyze the building designs!
Okay, this is already really long I think. Also it's storming out right now. Welcome to the Israeli winter. I have a Shabbat dinner to prepare for my friends and myself, so until next week. Shabbat shalom!!
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